A communications network may provide a business entity with the ability to exchange information with trading partners, employees and independent contractors for a myriad of business-related activities. For example, business entities may exchange data over a communications network, such as the Internet, to complete a transaction involving goods, services or financial information. Because employees and independent contractors of business entities often travel, commute, and meet with business people in different geographical locations, a need arises to support the access of mobile users of mobile communication devices to one or more business resources. Mobile communication devices may include wireless phones, personal digital assistants, and other microprocessor-based communication devices that process and present information to a mobile user. For example, a wireless phone may include a display and a wireless access protocol (WAP) compatible software that supports the display of content from the Internet or internal resources of a business entity.
Providing employees and other affiliates of business entities with mobile access to a computational resource of the business entity and/or Internet resources requires considerations of various technical obstacles, including the reliability of data transmission over a wireless link, the conversion of high data rate data protocols to lesser rate data protocols or wireless data protocols, the provision of security for wireless communications networks, and interfacing the wireless environment to the communications network (e.g., Internet) via a gateway server or another mechanism. Other practical considerations in enabling mobile commercial activities include system integration of standard hardware and standard software packages that do not otherwise cooperate to form a cohesive reliable system. For example, system integration may involve modification of the standard software, authoring patches or added functionality for the standard software, and engineering a reliable hardware system. Another problem with implementing mobile commerce solutions is the training of information technology workers on both wireless communication technology and general telecommunications technology.